Douglas Finberg Pimps Your Marvel

Variety reports that Marvel Studios has hired Douglas Finberg as Vice President of International Marketing to help sell the likes of 'Iron Man 2', 'Captain America', 'Thor' and 'The Avengers' on the worldwide stage.

Finberg most recently held the same title for Paramount Pictures International and will continue working with Paramount marketing and PR to oversee the campaigns for Marvel movies.

Fans recall that last year Marvel announced a pact with Paramount to distribute all of their upcoming theatrical releases.

TRANSFORMERS 2 Run Time

Favreau isn't the only one tweeting away. Michael Bay also has been employing the annoying micro-posting system.

Yesterday Bay dropped some knowledge on fans awaiting 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'.

"'TF' news that you have been waiting for, The runtime will be just under 2 and 1/2 hours," tweets Bay.

MTV got more specific with the director. He told them that the movie is four minutes longer than the first one. They crunched the numbers through the MTV supercomputer and call the new movie's length at 147 minutes.

Meet John Wraith

Here's another intro clip from 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'. This time Will.i.am schools you on his character John Wraith:

Gondry anticipates fan scorn on GREEN HORNET

Ain't it Cool is the latest site to catch some face time with 'Green Hornet' director Michel Gondry, who is making the rounds promoting the DVD 'Michel Gondry 2: More Videos'. They actually got the director to say something specific about the upcoming action movie.

"It would be safe to say there are going to be funny moments, but it's certainly not going to be a spoof of the genre. If we did that, we'd get killed by the GREEN HORNET fans. They already hate us," Gondry said.

IRON Tweets

Jon Favreau's Twittering from the set of 'Iron Man 2' is slowing a bit, as the production goes into its second week. Here's the latest summary:

# Standing in Tony's workshop. 8:50AM APR 14

# Sitting next to Pepper Potts. 3:50PM APR 14

# Back from lunch. More Tony and Pepper in the workshop. 6:00PM APR 14

Shia LeBeouf's hand will never be 100%

Last year 'Transformers' star Shia LeBeouf missed several weeks of filming due to a car accident. According reports, LeBeouf's car was struck by a vehicle whose driver ran a red light. The resulting hand injury required immediate surgery and had to be written into the film's story to allow the actor to continue working.

Now, LeBeouf tells EW.com that, with a third surgery planned, the hand is doing better but will never be back to normal.

"I'm on my third surgery. That's coming up in a week or two [from April 2]. My middle finger is still crooked as a f---ing noodle, so they've gotta straighten it out and put a screw in it," LeBeouf told the website.

The prescribed recovery period is two months, although LeBeouf didn't rest for the appropriate period after the first one. He told EW.com he couldn't ignore his obligation to everyone who was working on the film and returned to the set against doctors' instructions.

Presently, he doesn't expect full usage of his hand. "Probably about 80-something percent. I'll be able to make a fist again. There's a knuckle I'll never be able to move again, but that's probably the only permanent damage, other than the scarring," LeBeouf said.

Eisner talks FLASH GORDON

Fans may be trying to forget the recent, lackluster TV series that aired on SCI FI Channel in 2007 and 2008, but director Breck Eisner still aims to do right by Alex Raymond's great space hero 'Flash Gordon'.

Speaking to Joblo.com from the set of his new movie 'The Crazies', Eisner said he plans to focus on the pulp hero once the new movie is complete.

"We broke story with the writers [Matt] Sazama and [Burk] Sharpless for the last five or six months or so. They went to draft just as we started shooting ['The Crazies'], and they're going to get to me a draft at wrap. I'll read it and do notes and we'll do a polish on that and give it to the studio a couple months from now," Eisner said. "Hopefully the studio will like it and we'll go forward. It's a big movie and the studio has got to love the script."

Based on his comments fans shouldn't fear a retread of the SCI FI Channel show, nor should the expect a campy romp, like the fondly-remebered Sam J. Jones film.

"The thing about 'Flash' is, you've got to throw away the 80s version of it. I want it to be intense, aggressive, gritty and real," Eisner explained. "For me it's about reinventing 'Flash' - we're still staying true to the adventure origins of it, and the adventurous spirit in that movie, absolutely. It's this man brought to another planet and uniting the disperate groups on Mongo, but there is a gritty, intense, dynamic, active quality to the movie. Very modern. It's not camp."

What do you think, Maniacs? Does Eisner's vision for FLASH GORDON strike a chord with you? Post your comments below...

I like that he at least Eisner refrained from describing Flash Gordon film as "dark" though I think gritty could be a synonym in this instance. I'm looking forward to this, though it seems a long way off. Love the b&w Flash, the 80's film and the animated series as well.

Green Hornet doesn't have any stinking fans. Maybe a few but I think the vast majority of us may be casual fans at best. And Gondry of Be Kind Rewind fame, I just don't see any good coming from this then add Rogen to the mix as the lead and I smell bomb. Nothing new for Rogen.

I'll switch place with Shia and settle for 80% usage of one of my hands. He still has a pretty blessed life.

Flash Gordon: "Gritty and real" are the catchwords for all movies and TV that is action-oriented. Since the success of the Bourne movies, then the new 007 movies and most recently TDK everything where somebody punches somebody or blows something up will be in this style. This is fine with me. Just make sure you remember that some of these subjects, like Flash Gordon still need a sense of fun.

Green Hornet: Since this character isn't at the top of every genre fan's favorites list, I think Gondry, Rogen, et al can be afforded some leeway in coming up with an innovative way in doing him. So longs as you don't go super campy.

Folks, I tried to watch The Spirit yesterday. It is hands down one of the worst films I think I have ever seen. I didn't even get through it, just turned it off about half way I think. So please, don't make the same mistake I did. Just stay away. STaY AWAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

Finally, in honor that today is April 15, I have one thing to say: FREE WESLEY SNIPES!! The man who gave us "Always bet on black!" is incarcerated and must be freed. We must unite and use the Wookie defense to get him free. "Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense! "

hanso, wtf? You bringing your entire family to this site? Now you have a 5th cousin roaming around.

And Rogen's films, the ones where he was a lead or co-lead have all bombed when compared to expectations and hype, you know this to be true search your feelings. Hell, if I recall correctly you weren't that satisfied with Pineapple nor Z&M, and you're a fan of his. I think your general feelings about these were lukewarm at best but I know you just didn't want to say how bad they sucked. You just can't bring yourself to admit that he's overrated. Knocked Up is the exception by the way.

I am down with a new version of Flash because the SciFi series was almost unwatchable. The guy who played Ming was not a good choice. I was one of the few people that liked Sahara so I will give Eisner a chance. But please find someone better than Whitney Fordman to play Flash and say what you will about the 80s version, but I proudly bought the original DVD for $5 at Walmart back in 2001. Queen's soundtrack was awesome in that movie other than Van Sydow the acting was not.

As far as Green Hornet goes I am game for a movie. I think it would have been better with Chow at the helm, but I am not gona dig on Gondry even though he has done mostly small movies because so did a guy named Chris Nolan before Batman. So you just never know.

Flash Gordon, Iall I know of him is the cartoon from when I was a kid where He was in a team w/ The Phantom (the only way I know of him too, besides the Zane movie), and Mandrake the magician.

Was the Sci-fy show awful?

ROGEN IS THE BOMB YO!!!! sure not everything lives up to Knocked Up, or Super Bad, which he had a heavu hand in. AND I havent seen O&R yet, but gonna check it out this weekend. Rogen is hilarious. I think I'm the only one pon Mania, that likes comedians. I love Rogen and the Apatow crowd, Stiller, Ferrel, Carey, ect...

My MY what fickle fans we have these days, after one or twelve funny movies Americans love to hate the stars.

More TF:ROTF, make it f-ing 3 hours long, I CAN'T WAIT

TF might be my movie of the summer!!!!

Hanso, I watched the spirit this weekend. Not great, not great at all, but the women were hot! I liked Sam Jacksons over the top performance. And the the short running time made it watchable. I've never read The Spirit comics, so I didn't mind it. I still like that "overused" black and white digital noir style(I'm being sarcastic, as there has only been one other movie in this style).